Sherry and I ventured down to the coast today. Beautiful sunny skies, warm weather, and little wind until the afternoon. We first stopped at Midway Beach where we spent a couple hours walking the beach. We had 5 Red-necked Phalaropes, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, Killdeer, Least and Western Sandpipers in the front pond where you come in at. Along the beach we had Sanderlings, only 1 Heerman's Gull, lots of California Gulls, 1 American Pipit, and 3 Savannah Sparrows. Over the water we had, about 200 Sooty Shearwaters, 3 Black-legged Kitiwakes (they were failry close in), 6 Surf Scoters, and lots of Brown Pelicans and Doubled-crested Cormorants.
After our nice walk, we headed for Tokeland and stopped at Graveyard Spit. Lots of Heerman's Gulls, California Gulls, Cormorants, and lots of Brown Pelicans. At the Marina, we had 3 Willets and about 250 Marbled Godwits, one which was extremely pale whitish looking. At first glance we thought Bar-tailed. If I get a chance, I'll post some pictures on a website.
Our last stop was at the Westport Marina, where we had more Least and Western Sandpipers, 1 Common Loon, 1 Common Murre, more Heerman's Gulls and Brown Pelicans.
On the way home we had 2 Great Egrets in the estuary when crossing the bridge into Bay City and 1 Osprey in Malone.

Dave Hayden
dtvhm AT nwrain.com
Centralia, WA